Telephone devices, including land-line telephones and radiotelephones, include a transducer or bell providing an audible alert that is commonly known as "ringing". Some portable telephone devices, such as radiotelephones, include a vibrator that vibrates the device to provide a silent alert. In these devices, the user can select either the silent alert or the audible alert depending upon the user's needs.
The user of the device will typically select the silent alert while participating in a meeting or otherwise located in a public where the audible alert will cause a disruption. The advantage of the silent alert is that it lets the user know of an incoming call without disturbing others. However, if the user answers the incoming call immediately, they will disturb others. Other alternatives available to the user include ignoring the call, which will result in losing the call, or accepting the call immediately and not speaking into the device until moving to a private location. If the user accepts the call, but does not speak right away, the calling party will be confused and they will likely hang-up and try to call again.
One advantageous solution has been to put an answering circuit into portable radiotelephone devices. The answering circuit stores a prerecorded message requesting that the caller leave a short reply, and records the reply for later play-back by the user. Although the answering circuit permits recording of the message, the circuit is relatively large and expensive and does not provide a reliable message of the called party's status. Thus the calling party does not know when the called party will call back.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved, more versatile, silent answer feature.